Following some nasty business with harmless Dying Light film grain mods being hit with DMCA requests, and a recent over-zealous patch, Techland say blocking mods has never been their intent.
In a statement passed along to GameSpot, Techland say:
“Creating obstacles for modders has never been our intention. We are now working on a quick patch that will re-enable common tweaks while stopping cheating in the game’s multiplayer mode.”
“At Techland, we have always supported the mod community, and loved seeing how our own game can be changed by the players. A big part of the original Dead Island’s success was the passion and creativity of mod-makers from our community. We want the same for Dying Light.”
That covers the anti-cheating patch issue, but what of the DMCA tactics? Techland don’t mention this at all, which re-establishes the likelihood that publisher Warner Bros. were the people behind that particular move. More specifically, the DMCAs came from the Entertainment Software Association (an organisation in which Warner Bros. are a member.)
It’s quite possible (and this is speculation on my part) that the people acting through the ESA on behalf of Warner Bros have no idea how to distinguish between harmless mods like film grain effects and more nefarious items. This appeared to be the case when the popular DSFix tool for Dark Souls was mistakenly targeted in a similar fashion.
That would mean the possibility of future DMCA blunders can’t really be ruled out, but it seems like Dying Light mod support is otherwise going to be upheld.
